So I got to thinking, what would be required to landing on Phobos? Could a lander be tailored to land on both Phobos and the Lunar surface, slight modifications not withstanding?
Was just thinking about landing on Mars and wanted to start a thread disusing alternatives that are still worthwhile.From what I understand, landing humans on Mars would at the very least require landing 40 times the weight of Curiosity and if there is other information out there I would be interested in seeing it. Landing that kind of Mass on Mars is going to be extremely difficult and could easily take beyond the 2030 decade.
As is often quoted, Curiosity has about the mass of a Mini Cooper. Im sure you could land someone in that It would make a great "Top Gear" Finale
Let me share here a small portion of an architecture I'm working on. In another thread I was talking about a mostly propulsive landing on Mars itself.That would involve a small lander with a mass of about 5 tonnes including the crew, life support, RCS and everything but main fuel. Such a vehicle would require about 3.8Km/s of effective Delta-V to land on Mars. That would mean at least 10 tonnes of methane/LOX fuel taken on in low Mars orbit.The vehicle would be scaled to also act an ascent vehicle. In this case a delta-V of 4.5Km/s and a full load of 13 tonnes of methane/LOX fuel.I designed this lander vehicle with a larger architecture in mind. One where the majority of mass (the habitat and return vehicle) brought from Earth on a manned mission would be parked in a high elliptical orbit around Mars. A near escape orbit with a period of about 3 days. There would also be a less provisioned habitat in low Mars orbit. This vehicle would also serve as the fuel depot for the lander.In a notional mission the lander would dock with the habitat in low Mars orbit and refuel. The delta-V required from there to the return vehicle in high Mars orbit is 1.3Km/s That's about 2.5 tonnes of fuel. Ok, here's the point. Such a lander would be able to take on sufficient fuel in low Mars orbit and then land on Phobos. From there it could land on Deimos. And from there it could dock with the return vehicle in high Mars orbit. All on one tank of fuel. That's the advantage of designing something that is specified to be an ascent vehicle. Of course the lander would have minimal life support so don't expect a long stay on Phobos. p.s. The lander I propose would be capable of landing on the lunar surface and returning back to L2. It wouldn't take you all the way from low Earth orbit though.
What about the theory that phobos is hollow?
Okay so I would not have even suggested it except for this article, i'm really just curious what you guys think, please dont feel obligated to read it, but I found it rather rather thought provoking ...http://www.eutimes.net/2013/09/experts-puzzled-after-great-comet-makes-mars-orbital-adjustments/ ;) ;D
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=26428.0Phobos is definitely where the U.S. and it's international partners should concentrate their efforts. Without the technological challenge and huge expense of developing Entry, Descent and Landing of a big 30-to-40 ton vehicle, the same set of vehicles that could do a NEA mission could go to Phobos with little modification. ...